Just then, ¹  while she was still speaking to the king, Nathan the prophet arrived.

While ¹  you are still there speaking to the king, I will arrive ²  and verify your report.” ³ 

As he was still speaking, Jonathan ¹  son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in, for ²  an important man like you must be bringing good news.” ³ 

¹  When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news, he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since. ² 

But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord still here, that we may ask him?”

So they put sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel. They said, “Your servant ¹  Ben Hadad says, ‘Please let me live!’” Ahab ²  replied, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” ³ 

I still have left in Israel seven thousand followers who have not bowed their knees to Baal or kissed the images of him.” ¹ 

After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; ¹  he continued to appoint common people ²  as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest. ³ 

The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can seek the Lord’s will. ¹  But I despise ²  him because he does not prophesy prosperity for me, but disaster. His name is Micaiah son of Imlah. ³  Jehoshaphat said, “The king should not say such things.”

“Note well, you still have to contend with Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, ¹  who tried to call down upon me a horrible judgment when I went to Mahanaim. ²  He came down and met me at the Jordan, and I solemnly promised ³  him by the Lord, ‘I will not strike you down ⁴  with the sword.’

Hadad, ¹  who was only a small boy at the time, escaped with some of his father’s Edomite servants and headed for Egypt. ² 

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper. ¹ 

He removed from the land any male cultic prostitutes who had managed to survive the reign of his father Asa. ¹ 

King Rehoboam consulted with the older advisers who had served ¹  his father Solomon when he had been alive. He asked them, ²  “How do you advise me to answer these people?”

The king of Israel said to his servants, “Surely you recognize that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us, though we are hesitant to reclaim it from the king of Syria.” ¹ 

(Rehoboam continued to rule over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.)

He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved. ¹  (22:44) ²  However, the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, ¹  because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord. ² 

The poles were so long their ends were visible from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point. ¹  They have remained there to this very day.

Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out completely). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews, and they continue in that role to this very day. ¹